classical

Every now and then, having the ability to look up old Mac models can be fun. If not for nostalgic reasons, you might be needing to help someone revive an old Mac and wish to look up some of the specifications and capabilities of the system. For instance, if you have some spare RAM modules and wish to see if they can be used in an old Mac, then checking the Mac's RAM type as well as its maximum supported RAM may be useful information to have.

You can always use a search engine like Google to find information … Read more

A lot of changes came with Windows 7, including changes to the Start menu. Taskbar Classic Start Menu lets you go back in time to the days of Windows 2000 and Me, by way of a system notification icon. The menu gives you the best of both Windows worlds, but we found one glitch that prevents us from recommending it.

When installed, Taskbar Classic Start Menu appears as an icon in your system tray. Right-clicking it introduces a Start menu that indeed looks and acts just like Windows 2000 and Me menus. You'll find the Run, Settings, Programs, Favorites, … Read more

Media players are a dime a dozen, which makes it hard for them to stand out from the crowd. Media Player Classic Home Cinema is another contender in the category, but its glitchy performance failed to impress us enough to make the switch from our current player.

The program's user interface is as basic as it gets, which isn't a bad thing. A menu runs across the top of the window, offering navigational options: File, View, Play, Navigate, Favorites, and Help. A bar with buttons for playing, pausing, stopping, and skipping forward and backward resides at the bottom … Read more

Cheap, small, sounds great: pick two. That's how home audio almost always works. We say almost, because the Energy Take Classic 5.1 is one of those rare products that's seemingly without compromise.

The speakers are compact (although not tiny like the Boston Acoustics SoundWare SX 5.1 system), but their sound quality is outstanding, so you won't regret opting for small speakers.

The speakers also look fantastic, finished in an elegant piano black that belies the system's budget price. The official list price for the Take Classic 5.1 may be $600, but it's … Read more

Strike Knight is a free, ad-supported pinball-shuffleboard game from the makers of the classic Paper Toss. In terms of gameplay, you pretty much get what you pay for--but the execution is fun and funny, with great attention to detail.

The interface puts you in a bar, complete with the hubbub of background noise. You're looking down the length of a realistic shuffleboard-bowling game, on which you're trying to slide a metal puck to knock down bowling pins. The details of the interface are convincing and entertaining (the crowd and an animated "Strike Knight" on the back-glass … Read more

Strike Knight is a free, ad-supported pinball-shuffleboard game from the makers of the classic Paper Toss. In terms of gameplay, you pretty much get what you pay for--but the execution is fun and funny, with great attention to detail.

The interface puts you in a bar, complete with the hubbub of background noise. You're looking down the length of a realistic shuffleboard-bowling game, on which you're trying to slide a metal puck to knock down bowling pins. The details of the interface are convincing and entertaining (the crowd and an animated "Strike Knight" on the back-glass … Read more

Why is the Leaf outselling the Volt? Those pesky flying cars just won't go away. Infiniti and Scion think small is the next big thing. And we take you for a drive in the no longer small 2011 Audi A4.

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• CNET picks 10 modern classic cars you should snap up today

• Prius Sport package has us puzzled… Read more

How much room-shaking home theater power can you expect five minispeakers and a pipsqueak subwoofer to deliver? Technological advances have certainly changed my thinking on this matter, but my listening tests proved speaker size still matters when I compared the Boston Acoustics SoundWare XS 5.1, Energy Take Classic 5.1, and Pioneer SP-PK21BS subwoofer-satellite packages.

The Boston SoundWare XS cube satellites are incredibly tiny, just 4.43 inches wide, 4.25 inches high, and 4.43 deep. Each one weighs just 1 pound. The speaker's rear is faceted, so instead of being a six-sided cube, the SoundWare XS … Read more

Could you have predicted in 1965 that a $3,000 Mustang would be worth $50,000 today? Or in 1960 that a $5,000 Corvette could go for $100,000 in 50 years? There are certainly many cars from the past that are gone and forgotten, that will never attain anything like classic status. Trying to predict classic cars is harder than picking soybean futures.

Nevertheless, the editors of Car Tech decided to give it a try. Looking at cars from the last decade, we came up with 10 that seemed like they should stand the test of time. Most of the cars we picked had niche interest or a limited production run, ensuring some rarity in the future. A car like the first-generation Toyota Prius heralds the beginning of a new trend in the automotive world, while the Pontiac G8 marks the end of a brand. … Read more